Long gone are the happy days when houses sold in minutes of listing in sunny South Florida. Today, available housing and condo inventories are swelling, prices are stabilizing, and the time houses remain on the market is growing. Definitely good news for home buyers. Rising interest rates are being blamed for the slow down in [...]
Philadelphia Inquirer – The chief executive officer of Toll Bros. Inc. acknowledged yesterday what many in the housing industry have long feared. Speculators helped fuel the housing boom, and now they’re trying to unload homes in a weakening market. “In 2005, demand for new homes in many markets was propelled to unsustainable levels by speculative [...]
Dailypress.com – The past year saw a marked increase in outside firms making big investments in Hampton Roads commercial real estate, as a strong economy, port growth and planned terminal expansions drove interest in getting a foothold in the market. While the region’s residential real estate market continued booming, the industrial, office and retail markets [...]
Kentucky Post – After several years of setting records for home sales, the market appears headed for a breather. A slowdown in home sales, expected this year, could mean homebuyers regain the upper hand from sellers and could affect other parts of the region’s economy. Greater Cincinnati just completed its sixth consecutive record year for [...]
The First Republic Prestige Home Index shows that luxury home values rose to all-time highs in Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco in 2005 on the strength of double-digit gains, but appreciation slowed significantly in the fourth quarter. The Index found: — The average luxury home in Los Angeles is now a record $2.29 [...]
The Arizona Republic – The housing market may have cooled but not the enthusiasm for investing in Phoenix area real estate. About 1,000 investors and would-be investors spent the weekend at Phoenix Civic Plaza learning how to find cheap properties and then “fix and flip” them. They came with different backgrounds and bank accounts, but [...]
San Francisco Chronicle – This spring, Bay Area homeowners are likely to know whether the housing market has merely paused before resuming its upward climb or has truly downshifted to the slow lane and, if so, how dramatically. Last month, the number of homes sold declined for the 10th month in a row and hit [...]
East Valley Tribune – With a 48.9 percent hike in median sales prices, the Valley led the nation in year-to-year price growth for single-family homes, according to data released Wednesday by the National Association of Realtors. The double-digit increase brought the median price of an existing home in the Valley to $268,400 in the fourth [...]
NY Times – Home construction jumped 14.5 percent to a 34-year high last month, the government reported today, a sign that builders may have taken advantage of the unusually warm weather in January. The report surprised many analysts because home sales have perceptibly slowed and the number of unsold homes has risen in many markets [...]
Arizona Republic – Metropolitan Phoenix’s housing market is cooling, but it still managed – barely – to snag the title of the nation’s hot spot for home price gains in 2005. But judging by what has happened to the previous two titleholders, that could be more of a bother than a blessing. Las Vegas, which [...]